293 
the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 
the 12th June. Descending the river we saw Ruffs at their 
e( hills ” on the 17th June, and procured eggs as late as the 
27th on an island opposite Stanavoialachta. Flocks of Ruffs 
were seen frequenting the marshy estuary of a small river, on 
the tundra opposite Alexievka, on the 9th July; and the au¬ 
tumn plumage was fully assumed by the 29th July, when we 
shot a Ruff at Dvoinik out of a flock in the same plumage in 
which they are shot in this country in September. Ruffs 
and Reeves were abundant on the islands, but comparatively 
scarce, or local, on the tundra. 
-/-Tringa subarquata, Giild. 
During a short half-hour that we visited Dvoinik, on the 
occasion of our first visit, Seebohm succeeded in securing a 
single example in full breeding-plumage, which was all we 
saw of the Curlew Sandpiper, unless six or seven other birds, 
which were feeding along with it at the time it was shot, 
were of the same species. We obtained no definite clue to its 
breeding-haunts; but from the accounts we heard, conflicting 
and untrustworthy as these often were, we gathered that 
marshy plains and swamps of great extent lie along the 
courses of the numerous rivers and small streams which flow 
from the Pytkoff Mountains to the sea, to the north-eastward of 
Dvoinik. Of this fair land of promise we were only permitted 
to obtain a very distant and unsatisfactory view, as, on the 
only occasion when we might have seen it had the air been 
clear, from a height upon the tundra to the north of the inlet, 
a white mist lay along the distant hollows, completely con¬ 
cealing the features of the landscape. The Curlew-Sandpiper, 
as we learn from Mr. Bogdanoff, is seen on the Volga and 
Kama rivers during both migrations. 
-ATringa cinclus, L. 
We did not see the Dunlin at all during the time of its 
migration; nor did we meet with it until the 22nd June, when 
we landed for the first time on the tundra opposite Alexievka. 
There we found a few pairs scattered over the grassy swamps, 
and afterwards saw them in great numbers at Dvoinik and 
on the Golaievskai islands. At the latter locality immense 
